The Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government has taken the first key step to end its dependency on the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) officials who remain federal government employees even when serving under a provincial government.

The Sindh cabinet on Thursday discussed rules for the recruitment of senior police officers at the provincial level and to create a provincial police cadre, a release at the end of the meeting said.

Only the Inspector General of Police (IGP) would be from the PSP cadre.

The move comes amid a dispute between the federal and Sindh governments over the transfer and posting of senior police officers and bureaucrats.

Earlier this year, the federal government transferred several senior police officers and bureaucrats out of the Sindh province citing the rotation policy that prohibits officers serving more than 10 years in a given province.

The Sindh government opposed the orders and was involved in a tug of war, but the federal government got its way.

Currently, police officers above the rank of DSP are drawn from the PSP cadre. The federal government assigns them to a province and the provincial government can post them anywhere in the province. They also receive orders from the provincial government via the IGP.

Setting up a provincial police cadre amounts to upsetting the conventions.

However, the Sindh cabinet on Thursday was told that “the Constitution and the PSP Rules 1985 did not bar the provincial government from making the subject recruitment rules nor do they suggest any concurrence from the federal government,” a statement from the Chief Minister House said.

“The matter of policing or police service is not included in the federal legislative list,” it added.

The Sindh cabinet meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, has formed a committee over the issue.

The government plans to fill all of the positions from SP to Additional IGP (BS-21) through the proposed provincial cadre. The SP would be appointed “by promotion from amongst the Prosecuting Deputy Superintendents of Police (BS-17) having at least five-year service as such on seniority-cum-fitness basis.”

According to the proposal, after notifying the proposed rules, the eligible officers in the rank of SP(BS-18) may be promoted against the posts of SSP/AIGP (BS-19) in Sindh Police replacing the PSP officers in this rank /posts and when these Sindh Police Service officers become eligible for BS-20 (DIGP) the same may be promoted as per rules replacing the officers of PSP.

The cabinet after thorough discussion decided to constitute a committee under Energy Minister Imtiaz Shaikh and comprising Industries Minister Ikramullah Dharejo, Advisor law Murtaza Wahab, Advocate General, Chief Secretary, and ACS Home to examine the proposed rules and consider the constitutional provisions and present their report within a month.

Education

Meanwhile, the provincial cabinet discussed and approved the Search Committee Act, 2021 for the appointment of the Vice-Chancellors and other officers of the universities in public sector universities in Sindh. The cabinet approved the bill and referred it to the assembly.

The cabinet was told that 318 higher secondary schools, boys and girls, were facing an acute shortage of subject specialists for classes XI and XII. They said that a requisition has been sent to SPSC but it would take time and the delay was causing academic loss.

The cabinet decided that “interns” would be hired to teach the subject and the hiring would be school-specific/need basis and selection would be purely on merit and district basis.

A stipend/ internship allowance amounting to Rs50,000 per month would be allowed subject to satisfactory performance. The hiring shall be on purely intern basis.

EVs

The provincial cabinet also discussed the issue of electric vehicles (EVs).

The sub-committee in its report recommended fixing the Registration Fee at Rs1,000 for non-commercial EVs for two years and lowering the Annual Motor Vehicle Tax to Rs500.



source https://www.samaa.tv/news/2021/12/sindh-govt-moves-to-establish-its-own-police-cadre/